


there’s a heart stain on the carpet

by orphan_account



Series: two blue hearts locked in our own minds [2]
Category: Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, but not that intense, in the end because im weak, v v subtle jihoon/samuel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 09:39:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10919202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: the lack of support doesn’t bug daehwi as much as the thought of people misunderstanding him and hating him for someone who he isn’t and on top of it all, he is being rivaled against his close friend samuel.





	there’s a heart stain on the carpet

it’s not like daehwi doesn’t realise the comments being thrown at him online. with every one nice comment, there would be three mean ones directed to him. it was easy to act like it didn’t phase him at first, when he is still getting high ranks. in some way, it’s reassuring to him that people still like him and want to see him succeed. however, that didn’t last long and quickly by the second week the comments really start to get into his head to a point that they become a distraction. he is still practicing tirelessly but always, at the back of his mind were those mean comments making fun of his (supposed) sexuality, how he is such a “rude fucking bitch” and that the fans wouldn’t want to support him anymore. 

 

the lack of support doesn’t bug him as much as the thought of people misunderstanding him and hating him for someone who he isn’t. the show portrayed his determination to win as greed, some words of his got twisted into something that is entirely different and on top of it all, he is being rivaled against his close friend samuel.

 

set on trying to fix the issue, the same week daehwi really tries. he calls somi and asks for pointers; how do i escape mnet’s so-called ‘evil editing’? somi sounds helpless when she answered but she still helped with advice. 

 

“who are they pitting you against?” somi asks. daehwi’s knows of somi’s history with sejeong — how they slowly drifted apart due to mnet pitting them against each other. he also knows that the two girls are back to being closer than ever though, so daehwi is hopeful.

 

daehwi chews his bottom lip in nervousness before answering. “samuel, i think. kim samuel. sometimes the nuest members but mostly samuel.”

 

somi doesn’t sound surprised, as if she already had an idea it was him. “the boy from brave sound?” daehwi hummed. “you two good friends?” she asks further and daehwi answers with a short yes. he itches to talk more about his growing friendship with samuel and the funny things samuel did today — but he holds them in, that’s for another conversation.

 

“whenever they mention samuel, most likely the other cameras would go on you. just try to not—” somi paused trying to think of the appropriate word to explain it, “—try not to give away any… sour expressions.”

 

“so you mean i should smile all the time?”

 

somi huffed, “well if you do that they’ll think you’re a maniac. or a fake. whichever the netizens would take first. just…a neutral face. also, maybe don’t hang around samuel all the time? at least when the cameras are around.”

 

“but he’s my friend,” the boy answered back exasperatedly as if somi just asked him to do the most impossible. “and cameras are around _all_ the time.” daehwi almost thought to just bear with the mean comments, if it meant to stay being around samuel.

 

“just— be careful on what you say. they can get sneaky with editing.”

 

 

 

turns out, avoiding samuel isn’t as difficult as daehwi makes it out to be. mostly because the younger is making it extra easy. at first daehwi thought nothing of it, because samuel is allowed to have more friends. in fact he is happy that samuel is spending time with more people rather than locking himself in a practice room alone. samuel tends to be too caught up in his thoughts in the first place and daehwi would think that being alone for more than 12 hours a day could get detrimental very fast fast for the younger.

 

slowly however, daehwi starts to notice small, minute things that samuel does. he tells himself it’s just him over-thinking and overanalysing and that he shouldn’t be this clingy to samuel. at first it was samuel eating lunch with jihoon instead of him — no matter how busy they are their routine would always be wait for the other to get lunch and eat together to catch up with each other’s day — but not today, not the following days either. whenever they are in the same room daehwi would look (borderline stare) at the younger to try and catch samuel’s attention but the younger continues on with his practice or joking around with the other trainees. samuel would pretend to sleep early (daehwi knows samuel is still awake because he has difficulty falling asleep) and when daehwi calls out samuel’s name, he would ignore him and faking sleep. jinyoung had to hush him from talking anymore to make daehwi stop calling samuel’s name.

 

he asks jihoon about this but the boy is either very oblivious with his surroundings or acting like he doesn’t know anything. “samuel didn’t say anything to you about me? is he upset about me?”

 

jihoon shrugs. “he asks about you but just about how you’re doing and stuff. doesn’t seem like he’s upset.” daehwi is confused, if samuel asks about him to jihoon why can’t he just ask _to_ him?

 

the blond trainee tries to find chances to get samuel and talk to him but the younger is too good in hiding away from him; which just further confirms daehwi’s theory that he is avoiding him. daehwi finally gets his chance during lunch time. he sees samuel putting his sweater in his bag as everyone else rushes outside to queue up for lunch. he waits for the younger outside the door, away from the glass door so the other couldn’t see him and try to run away.

 

to say samuel is surprised when he sees daehwi standing next to him would be an understatement. the younger boy has his mouth gaped, both in shock of daehwi calling out his name and that daehwi finally, _finally_ caught on to him.

 

“going to lunch sammy?” daehwi asks as he links his arm around samuel’s own like nothing between them has happened.

 

“um…” samuel only says. daehwi could feel samuel trying to release his arm away from the other’s grip. “i’m actually meeting jihoon so…”

 

“what a coincidence i’m meeting jihoon too!” daehwi quickly answers back. he isn’t, he doesn’t even know where jihoon is right now but he is desperate. “can we talk for a second though?” he adds. he doesn’t wait for samuel to answer because he is already steering the both of them to another direction, away from the walking stream of trainees going towards the dining hall. 

 

daehwi doesn’t wait for samuel to settle in, he immediately jumps to the question as soon as they found an empty room. “did i do something wrong? why are you avoiding me?” samuel’s eyes go round and he looks very taken aback, surprised at the sudden question. daehwi crosses his arms and huffs. “yes, samuel. i noticed.” daehwi rolls his eyes.

 

“uh…”

 

daehwi waits for an answer. none. “is that all you’re going to say?” he snarls sassily. 

 

“i was just trying to help.” there is a faint blush across the younger’s cheeks.

 

“help?”

 

“i know you’ve been stressing out about the rivalry editing thing. jinyoung told jihoon, then jihoon kind of told me.” daehwi vaguely remembers ranting about it to jinyoung through a phone call one night, they were both exhausted and empty rambling at that point he didn’t think that jinyoung would remember.

 

“so…what?” the older eggs on.

 

“they can’t edit us being rivals if we’re not together in the first place. you seemed really upset, hyung. i was worried.” samuel replies caringly and it takes every matter in daehwi’s body not to smother the younger with hugs. “i hated it too you know. how they make us look like enemies,” he adds.

 

things clicked in daehwi’s head right after. of course, samuel was also there watching the first two episodes along with the other trainees. he was too caught up in his own worries to realise that samuel is also feeling troubled about it too. it is strange really because the show portrays them as rivals when in reality daehwi has been choosing samuel to be by his side since the start. when daehwi was chosen to pitch for a baseball event, he chose samuel to join him too. for his first team, he chose samuel too. daehwi thought it’d be obvious that they’re actually close friends at most and healthy competitors to the very least. they spent most of their days together goofing around in between practices but unless they are discussing about something together, it wouldn’t make the final cut.

 

“fu— i am so sorry sammy. i didn’t know, ugh, i am such a bad friend.” daehwi looks at the other apologetically.

 

samuel smiles back and shrugs. “it’s okay. we were both trying to help each other. i’m sorry too, for ignoring you.”

 

the older beams back a smile to samuel. “are we get back to friends again? lunch is sooooo boring without you,” daehwi whines.

 

samuel laughs and pretends to be annoyed when daehwi grabs his hand and tugging his arm lightly. “i don’t know hyung. you’re not worried of the evil editing anymore?” despite the apparent smile tugging his lips, samuel sounds genuinely concerned.

 

the older trainee rolls his eyes, “god, i’m so over it ten minutes ago. as long as we both know we’re friends, right?” daehwi links his arm around samuel’s own and they both start to walk to the dining hall together.

 

“right.”

 

the two of them share a wistful smile. they both know how lucky they are to have each other as a support system with the show pressuring them and being scrutinised under the public’s eye over small things. 

**Author's Note:**

> title is from this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ITD0ryx8lQ
> 
>  
> 
> thank u for the sweet comments from the last one, i'm so glad there are actually samuel/daehwi shippers lmfao;;; i gotta confess to u guys tho.... i'm starting to be really into samuel/jihoon T_______T
> 
> see u guys in part 3~~~


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